JD-S holds rally near Bengaluru ahead of Assembly poll

February 18, 2018, 10:30 AM IST

Bengaluru: The Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) on Saturday held a rally on the city’s outskirts ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections in late April or early May and accused both the Congress and BJP of failure to serve the state’s people.

JD-S supremo and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, party Working President and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, with whose party the JD-S is in alliance for the polls, spoke on the occasion and urged the people to vote the regional party to power.

“We are positioning our party as an alternative to the two national parties, the Congress and the BJP, which have failed to serve the state’s people and at the national level,” Kumaraswamy said in his speech.

Charging the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party of failing to govern the southern state during their rule in the past, the JD-S leader claimed people were fed up with both the national parties as they were “most corrupt, myopic and stalled the state’s development”.

“We will waive all loans of farmers if elected to power and provide jobs for locals in thousands,” Kumaraswamy said.

The JD-S was in power in the state from May 2005 to October 2007, first with the Congress support for about 20 months till February 2006 and later with the BJP support for another 20 months.

The JD-S and BSP entered into a poll pact in New Delhi on February 8 to prevent what they called division of secular votes and take on the ruling Congress and opposition BJP in the elections to the 225-member Assembly.

The BSP will contest about 20 reserved constituencies but campaign jointly for candidates of both parties.

The JD-S, which has 40 lawmakers in the outgoing Assembly, secured 20 per cent vote in the 2013 Assembly polls as against 36.5 per cent by the Congress.